HAL Township in Ojhar, Nashik is a pot of multicultural and multi racial society. The School there was started in 1965 by the Officers of HAL for their children in those quaint Type V quarters. In 1969 it was handed over to Gokhale Education Society, and a beautiful new School campus with Assembly Hall, main building and office were made. The students who came from HAL township and nearby villages
experienced an unique bonding that they carried in their hearts, long after they flew away to make a great future for themselves, based on those high moral resolves inculcated by the good teachers of HAL School. And so it happened that once upon a time in 2005, the old Ex-Principal of our school, Shri B.H. Pai Angle, whom we really respected and loved, but had not seen and heard from for ages, came to Nashik from his home town in old Goa. Our senior schoolmate and friend Mr. Lala Philips coordinated the evening of a dinner party for him. Dr. Jayant Wagh and some of us friends chipped in. Soon we had a sizable gathering of old boys and girls and also some old teachers. We were seeing our long lost friends after so many years – it was such a delightful evening, starting with our school prayer, listening to old teachers, and finally celebrating and being merry! Why shouldn’t everyone be a part of this togetherness? That led to the formation of a ‘Body of Individuals’ with these posts – Mr. Lala Philips was the Chairman, Mr. Pravin Gaikwad was the Vice-Chairman, Dr. Jayant Wagh became the Organizing Secretary. Sanjay Uphade and Dr. Pankaj Gupta were the Joint Org. We had CA Ambadas Patil as the Treasurer and Mr. Santosh Wagh as the Joint Treasurer. We held a series of meetings, planned a big gathering and formed many subcommittees as more friends joined in. On 28th and 29th October 2006, we had our first Reunion Meet. It was such a pleasure to see all our old friends who had travelled from far off places in India and even abroad, just to be with us! The hard work behind organizing such a big gathering made it hugely successful. Three years later we had our second Reunion on 26-27 December 2009. This too was a mega event that brought more past students together and in touch with each other. Our presence on Facebook and Yahoo Groups helped connect with more and more of our old mates who were separated from us over the time and distance of so many years! Now we decided to take this to the next level. We formed a Charitable Trust, which was a proper Non Government Organisation (NGO), namely the ‘HAL School (Nashik) Alumni Association’ (HSAA), registered under the Societies Act and also with the Charity Commissioner of Nashik. The trustees were Chairman Dr. Pankaj Gupta, Vice Chairman Mr. Dinesh Patel, General Secretary Mr. Pravin Gaikwad, Secretary Mr. Ambadas Patil CA, Treasurer Mr. Ramesh Talware and members Mr. Umesh Rohankar and Ms. We further expanded our Executive Committee to include dedicated people who stood by and worked for our Alumni Association as if it was their family function. These are Mr. Shailesh Kulkarni, Ms. Madhuri Patil Vaghjee, Mr. Rahul Bajaj, Mr. Deepak Patade, Mr. Shripad Hirve, and Mr. Dipanjan Roy. In April 2012, we formed the new Executive Committee under the Chairmanship of Mr. Pravin Gaikwad and now the committee also includes Ms. Dipshika Ray, Mr. Deepak More, Mr. Ambuj Sinha, Mr. Sanjay Kankate, Dr. Rahul Bhandare, Mr. Rajesh Shelke, Mr. Rupesh Tiwari, and Mr. P Sunil Chandran. The HAL School (Nashik) Alumni Association (HSAA) was started with the core objective of keeping the spirit of brotherhood alive among all the present and ex students of our school. Through this portal we hope that we can create a medium by which old friends, lunch break acquaintances and former class mates could once again rekindle the memories of the good old days which they spent while studying in our illustrious school. Through this portal all ex-students will be able to find long lost buddies and contact them as well as get a gist of what each of them have been up to. Interaction is easy here as we use the latest in technology to bring you closer to your school even if you are miles away. Feel nostalgic as you read and post comments, see pictures of your friends as well as your school, get information and attend latest events and reunions, and much more! Our Third Reunion was held on 29th October 2011. More of seniors from first few batches joined us then and we were so happy to see those respectable retired gentlemen and ladies teasing each other like school children! Some of them had come to HAL Township after almost 30 years!! And that is not all! We decided to make use of our ‘force’ to do good for the society we live in. Let us start with giving petals, if not flowers. Our NGO swung into action and conducted programmes of serious social welfare and cultural causes, details of which you see on our website. Our Mission is ‘to give back to the society, for making us what we are today’. Our Vision is ‘to make the world a better place for all with what little we can do’. We have high aims to work by, this platform to work from and old mates to work with. We raise funds, conduct programs and events for the benefit of our member families and the society at large. We are simply a means for our members to reach out those who require help and assistance at that critical point and crucial hour. We feel blessed when we see the thankfulness on the part of the giver and gratitude in the eyes of the receiver of the help. We want you too to join us in this good work...
